Nurses at Portland-based Maine Medical Center have voted to keep the Maine State Nurses Association as their bargaining representative.
Voting took place Aug. 17-18, with 74 percent of nurses voting to support unionization and 26 percent voting against it, according to an Aug. 18 union news release.
"We have been winning important improvements at the bargaining table over the past year," Jonica Frank, BSN, RN, a nurse in the operating room and member of the union's bargaining team, said in the release. "Nurses across the hospital are excited about everything we have won so far."
Maine Medical Center nurses initially voted to join the Maine State Nurses Association, an affiliate of National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United, in 2021. Members voted on whether to keep the union after the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation assisted nurse David Brooks and his colleagues in filing the petition with the National Labor Relations Board.
In a statement shared with Becker's, Maine Medical Center Chief Nursing Officer Devin Carr, DNP, RN, said: "For the past year, we have bargained in good faith with the union. Although Maine Medical Center has always believed that a direct relationship with our nursing team is the best possible way to achieve our shared goals, we respect our nurses and their choice to have union representation."
The National Labor Relations Board must certify the election results before they are final.
Overall, the Maine State Nurses Association represents about 2,000 nurses at Maine Medical Center.